Like this:

Yup. We were robbed yesterday. Someone forced the back door open, took some electronics and jewelry, rifled through my closet and office, and made off with, among other things, a necklace given to me by my grandmother and one by my mother. Also, my camera, that I had waited so long to finally get. But you know what? There are far worse things than being robbed. No one was home. My pets were unharmed.

Yes, I’m angry. I’m freaked out and feeling exposed in my own home. We now have to spend time and money to do what we can to make the house more secure. New doors and locks and such are not in the budget. I’m not sure how much insurance will pay for the stolen items although I imagine I’ll be able to cover much of the losses. But as much as that all sucks, it probably sucks more to be the person/people who broke into my house. There are lots of reasons why people steal, but I’d venture to say that pretty much all of those reasons stem from the fact that the thief got beaten up pretty badly by life. Being a thief usually doesn’t appeal to happy, prosperous, well-adjusted people. So while it is hard to resist imagining myself apprehending the miscreants using amazing ninja moves (ha! what an imagination), I try instead to think of what it would take to have a society where people didn’t feel compelled to steal from or harm each other. That is much harder to imagine than me kicking criminal butt, and much more urgently needed.

I’m having a hard time verbalizing this, but I hope that whoever did this gets a chance to get their life back on track.